Equities slump after Iran strike on US troops spooks Asian markets

Mumbai (Maharashtra) [India], Jan 8 (ANI): Equity indices extended losses on Wednesday afternoon after Iran fired missiles at US forces in Iraq overnight, pushing oil prices higher as investors feared a wider conflict in the Middle East.
The attacks on Ain Al-Asad airbase and another at Erbil came hours after the funeral of top military commander Qassem Soleimani whose killing in a US drone strike led to sharp escalations in a developing conflict across the region.
Domestically, the GDP growth has been forecast to dip to an 11-year low of 5 per cent in the current financial year, mainly due to poor performance by the manufacturing and construction sectors.
At 12:30 pm, the BSE S&P Sensex was down by 221 points to 40,648 while the Nifty 50 edged lower by 78 points at 11,975. All sectoral indices at the National Stock Exchange were in the red.
Nifty PSU bank dipped by 1.8 per cent, metal by 1.6 per cent, realty by 1.1 per cent and auto by 1 per cent.
Among stocks, Eicher Motors traded 3.1 per cent lower at Rs 20,158 per share while metal majors JSW Steel, Hindalco and Tata Steel slipped by 2.6 per cent, 1.8 per cent and 1.7 per cent respectively.
Infrastructure engineering major Larsen & Toubro suffered a loss of 2.4 per cent while Bharat Petroleum Corporation, Kotak Mahindra Bank, Tata Motors and Titan traded lower by over 1.6 per cent each.
However, IT majors Tata Consultancy Services, HCL Technologies and Tech Mahindra besides Yes Bank and Bajaj Auto showed marginal gains.
Meanwhile, Asian financial markets were roiled with stocks sliding as investors feared a wider conflict in the Middle East could push up oil prices and dent US corporate earnings due to rising energy costs.
US President Donald Trump said in a tweet late on Tuesday that an assessment of casualties and damage from the strikes is underway and that he will make a statement on Wednesday morning (local time). (ANI)